What Happens If You Never Did Medicaid Planning in Georgia?

You Pay the Full Cost Until Your Assets Are Gone

Georgia Medicaid requires you to spend your countable assets down to $2,000 before the state pays a dollar. There is no exception for homeowners and no grace period.

At about $8,800 a month, the math is brutal. $50,000 in savings is gone in about 6 months. $100,000 is gone in about 11 months. $250,000 is gone in about 28 months, nearly 2 and a half years. Only then does Medicaid step in. See How Much Does a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust Cost in Georgia for what advance planning would have cost instead.

What the Spend-Down Looks Like in Practice

Countable assets include savings, CDs, stocks, IRAs past required withdrawal age, and second homes. Exempt assets include your primary home while you live there, one vehicle, and personal belongings.

These exemptions sound generous. They are not a protection plan. The home is only exempt while you are alive. After you die, Georgia’s recovery program can file a claim against it through probate.

After You Qualify: You Keep $70 a Month

Once Medicaid starts paying, your income situation changes completely. Georgia requires almost all of your monthly income, Social Security, pension, everything, to go directly to the nursing home.

You keep $70 a month for yourself. That is the personal needs allowance for haircuts, phone calls, and other basics. If your income is over $2,982 a month in 2026, you are not automatically disqualified, but the extra has to go into a Qualified Income Trust each month first.

After You Die: Georgia’s Estate Recovery Program

Under O.C.G.A. Section 49-4-147.1, Georgia files a claim against the probate estate for every dollar Medicaid paid.

Georgia is a probate-only recovery state. Assets that skip probate, like payable-on-death accounts or a funded revocable trust, are not subject to recovery. The home usually goes through probate. Georgia waives claims under $25,000, but a 12 to 24 month nursing home stay will far exceed that.

The only tool that protects both from the spend-down and from estate recovery is a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust set up at least 60 months before applying. Assets inside it skip probate entirely.

If You Made Gifts in the Last 5 Years

Georgia reviews every asset transfer made in the 60 months before you apply. Gifts to your kids or transfers into a trust in that window count against you, unless you got fair value back.

The penalty is the transfer amount divided by Georgia’s penalty divisor, $11,122 a month as of April 2026. During that penalty period, Medicaid pays for nothing. Example: a $100,000 gift two years before applying creates about 9 months of ineligibility, roughly $65,000 the family pays privately, on top of losing the gift itself.

If You Are Married: What Happens to the Spouse at Home

The spouse who stays home gets stronger protections. They can keep up to $162,660 in countable assets in 2026 under the Community Spouse Resource Allowance, while the spouse entering care still spends down to $2,000. For a fuller picture of planning ahead for care costs, see Long-Term Care Planning.

The home stays exempt as long as the at-home spouse lives there. But once both spouses are gone, Georgia can still file its claim, and the home is usually the target.

If the at-home spouse’s own income is low, they can also keep some of the applying spouse’s income. In 2026, Georgia guarantees the at-home spouse at least $4,066.50 a month in combined income before any of it has to go toward the cost of care.

What You Can Still Do If You Have No Plan

See Medicaid Planning for the full picture of how Atlanta families protect what they have built. Book a call to find out where you stand today.